Planooraph co



R. THIERFELDER.

STOCKING. APPLICATION FILED JAN. 27, I9l6.

Patented July 29, 1919.

LANDGRAPH 00., wAsHlNo'ToN, D. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

' RICHARD THIERFELDER, or MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, ASSIGNOR 'ro PHOENIXKNITTING, WORKS, 025 MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, A CORPORATION OF wrs-CONSIN'.

STOCKING.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented July 29, 1919. I

Application filed January 27, 1916. Serial No. 74,565.

To all whom it may concern: 1; 7

Be it known that I, RiOHARD THIERFELDER, a citizen of the United States,residing" at Milwaukee,in the county of Milwaukee and State ofWisconsin, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement inStockings, of which the following is a full, clearfconcise, and exactdescription, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming apart of this specification.

My invention relates to the manufacture of stockings and is concernedwith the production of a stocking of characteristically new andadvantageous construction.

The special feature of my invention lies in placing the seam, wherebythe edges of the manufactured fabric are joined, upon the normal outsideof the stocking. The novelty of the method lies in features concernedwith the disposition of the seam upon the normal outside of thestocking.

In sewed stockings, that is, the type of stocking wherein the piece offabric from which the stocking is to be formed is preliminarilymanufactured and subsequently sewed together at its edges, the seam, inprior art devices, is disposed upon the inside. It is well known in theart that the most desirable fabrics'for this purpose tend to curlinwardly, and for this reason, up to the present time, the onlypractical method has been to sew the stocking in reversed condition,that is, inside out, and then turning the stocking to give it its normalform, thus bringing the seam upon the inside. Incident to this plan andthe product which it produces is the consequent discomfort of thewearer. According to the teachings of my invention, I sew the stockingin its normal condition, that is, outside out, notwithstanding the factthat the material tends to curl inwardly, and, since I provide themethod and means for taking care of this inward curl, when the curls areplaced face to face instead of back to back, I am enabled to produce astocking with the seam upon the outside.

My invention will be more readily understood by reference to saiddrawings, in which- Figure 1 is an elevational view of my improvedstocking;

ig. a is a more or less diagrammatic view, being; a seat-ice reissuesthe plans of the line 2'-2 of Fig.1, and looking in the directionindicated by the arrows before the sole of'thestocking is sewed; I

Figs. 3, 4:, 5 and6are more or less diagrammatic views illustrating themargins of the fabric in the various stages of manufa'cture; and

' Fig. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary developed view of the toe portion ofthe fabric in fiat form before thev outer edges are sewed together.

It will be unnecessary to illustrate or de scribe the sewing machinewhich I use for sewing the edges of the stocking together except as tothe peculiar guides which I use to force the curled up edges to uncurland to lie fiat against each other in position to be sewed through andthrough together.

In said drawings 1 is my improved stocking as it appears in finishedform, having a seam 2 sewed around the toe portion 3 and the soleportion 4:. Fig. 7 illustrates the toe portion 3 in flat conditionbefore the edges have been sewed together, and the purpose of myinvention is to provide an improved manner of sewing the edges 5 of the.stocking blanks together to form the finished stocking as shown in Fig.1.

I provide a guide mechanism which I have illustrated merelydiagrammatically in the several figures.

Fig. 2 shows how the margins of the piece of fabric, curling inwardly,are brought together for stitching. I provide a central guide member14:, and outer guide members 18. The guide members are spread apart, andone margin of the fabric is led between one of the outer guide membersand the central guide member while the other margin of the fabric is ledbetween the other external guide member and the central 1nemher, so thatthe two margins embrace the central guide as shown in Fig. 3. Themarginal curls first encounter the primary spreaders 23, 23, on theupper edge of the central guide, as illustrated in Fig. 3, whichspreaders wedge themselves into the curls to straighten out the fabric,as shown in Fig. 3. The secondary spreaders 24, 24 are higher than theprimar spreaders and their action is to further t e action of theprimary is readers, thus further straightening out the Lebric, in Fig.4.. The step is illustrated in Fig. 5 where it will seen that the twomargins are in straightened condition between the respective guide 7members and after passing these guide members the two margins arebrought face to face, as illustrated in Fig. 6, and led between therolls C, C. As shown, the edges extend upward beyond the tops of therolls and the slight remaining margin is that provided for stitchingpurposes, it being seen that the reciprocating needle D lies immediatelyabove the rolls. The stitching then takes place and the stocking isfinally formed, right side out, with the seams on the outside;

It will now be clear that I have provided a stocking made up from aknitted blank, the

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Washington, -D. 0.

edges of which tend to curl inwardly and in which stocking the seamjoining said edges appears upon theoutside of the stocking.

A stocking conipo'sed of 'a fabric blank, the margins of which tend tocurl toward the wrong side f the fabric and inwardly of the stock ng andhaving said margins disposed together face to face and joined bystitching tl16IGtl1lOUgh,;tl'lG margins thus being on the outside of thestocking.

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name this 21st day ofJanuary, A. D.

RICHARD THIERFELDER.

Commissioner of Patents,

